This is a crescent-shaped pastry originated from Austria. It was said that the croissant was inspired by an event in 1683. While working through the night, a baker heard the Turks making tunnels beneath the city and managed to alert the Viennese army to prevent the siege. To commemorate the victory of Viennese troops against the Turks army, the said baker made a buttery flaky pastry in the shape of crescent moon based on the Turkish flag.

Mooncake is a traditional Chinese pastry, typically round or rectangular shaped with sweet lotus seed paste fillings usually eaten during the mid-autumn festival. The festival is actually linked to the mythical moon goddess of immortality. However, it was said that mooncakes were used during the Ming revolution era to distribute secret letters or messages hidden in the fillings in an effort to overthrow the Mongolian rulers of China in the Yuan dynasty. Sometimes, a puzzle or encrypted message will also be printed on the surface of the pastry to be solved by the other party.

This is a type of sweet bun made with spices and dried currants, with a cross mark on top usually eaten on Good Friday. It was said that hot cross bun came a long way during pagan days to worship the Sun and to honor the goddess of love and fertility called Astarte, by stamping the bread with horned emblem. However, the horned emblem became a cross when the Europe embraced Christianity. The cross on the bun is in memory of Jesus crucifixion. Nevertheless the cross on the bun had became issues ever since. On one occasion, the Protestant English monarchs attempted to ban the sale of the bun in fear of the fact that the bun could be used by the Catholics as communion wafer but in the end, the sales of the bun were permitted but only on Easter and Christmas day. And quite recently in 2003, the sales of hot cross buns had been banned in some schools in the UK on the ground that it could be offensive to non-Christians but this also was critically debated.

This is a type of baked dough twisted into knot shape. It is said that the Italian monks uses the leftover strips of dough and twisted them to resemble arms crossed in prayer. The tidbits were given by the Christian monks as rewards to well-behaved children and had became the world's popular snacks ever since.

Yu Tiao is a popular deep fried strip of dough, usually eaten by the Chinese during breakfast. Yu Tiao or U Char Kway in Hokkien dialect literally mean oil fried ghost. A Chinese government official named Qin Hui and his wife collaborated with the enemy and planned to frame the well-loved general Yue Fei and kill him. It is said that the fried dough was inspired by this traitorous couple who was sentenced to death (deep fried in oil) during the Song Dynasty. The Yu Tiao is often made by joining two rolls of dough side-by-side to represent the said husband and wife. Qin Hui's traitorous actions caused the public at that time to express their hatred towards him by making the dough.

This type of bread looks similarly like doughnut but it is made from yeast-wheat ring-shaped dough which is first boiled before baked, making the texture chewy. Bagel is said to be related to the victorious cavalry led by King John III of Poland, in which the dough is shaped like the lucky horseshoe joined together to form a ring. Bagel has become popular bread with many variations in the US and the UK especially in Jewish populated area.

Pasty is actually an individual pie with meat and vegetable fillings. It usually has solid ridge crust which is hand crimped along the pasty. It is said that pasty originated from the Cornish coal miner community in Cornwall, UK. The miners will pick the pasty by the edge of the crust and eat it and then throw the crust away. At that time, the miners believed that the crust should be left for the ghost in the mine. Actually, this is a practical way to eat the pasty as the dirty hands of the miners were usually contaminated with large amounts of arsenic. By throwing away the crust, it prevented them from eating the contaminated portion. Pasty recipe varies across the world as pasty was introduced by the English sailors who went to Russia and the English people who had migrated to the US. In fact there is also Pasty Day in Michigan, USA on the 24th May each year to represent the regional specialty.

The biggest part of the state, west Texas, has little more than miles and miles of miles and miles, and begins on the other side of Ft. Worth. By contrast, the community of West, Texas, on US 35, is on the interstate linking San Antonio, Austin, Ft. Worth and Dallas, and is near Italy, TX, if that helps.

The Czech settlement, named for its founder and first postmaster, Thomas West, circa 1882, is just north of Waco and an hour and a half south of Ft. Worth and Dallas. Which is why no one can whiz past West without pulling off the freeway to fill up on either dessert pastries, or lunches of ham and cheese or sausage-filled kolaches. Over the years, we thought we had seen all there was to see of West, TX and kolaches.

In fact, it occurred to us as we left the I-35 at exit 353, that we had never been into the town of West, just into the bakeries that line the service road we had just crossed. We were, therefore, delighted to learn that there seem to be as many kolache bakeries in West as there are streets. And there we discovered Gerik's Ole Czech Bakery. How had we missed it?

For, inside the comfortable, antique-furnished combination café, kolache showroom and mega-bakery which supplies fifteen convenience stores daily, we found the kolache that approaches the perfection for which we were willing to divert from our destination. Mary, who presides over the glass showcase filled to bursting with kolaches, placed our choices on paper plates, accompanied by plastic forks and spoons, and invited us to use the microwave seated on the old cabinet under shelves stuffed with kolache baking awards, many in the shape of rolling pins.

I imagined vivid flavors of the cherry, lemon and blueberry kolache assortment bursting in my mouth but the pull of chocolate is hard to overcome, so we gave into our chocoholic roots. As we dug into the baked pastry cup, in the center of the perfectly finished crust, were chocolate, cream cheese, caramel and large pecans which made up the concoction, as our plastic forks sank through the award-winning chocolate treat,, we grinned as the crust and filling disappeared on our tongues.

Not only were Gerik's choices of fruits, poppy seed, sesame seed and sausage-filled and various chocolate combinations of kolaches offered, but it was easy to see why they were judged the best year after year. Considering the difference from those we had eaten from the competition on the highway,which did the job for which they were intended, Gerik's kolaches had flavor, presentation and a weight not usually seen in pastry when hefted. I felt like we struck kolache gold!

We had not seen the prices in Gerik's anywhere else for years - a kolache is $1, with a price break for a dozen -- $11, and a huge cup of coffee, sized for dunking, is 55 cents.
The truth of quality, however, was revealed when the crust was challenged to the ultimate determiner: the coffee dunk test. A+! Over all, we agree with the wisdom of the judges!

Gigante is the name of the grocery store. We stopped to pick up some beverages and snacks to keep in our hotel room. As we were shopping, we came upon the bakery department and thought that we could pick up some fresh pastries for breakfast.

We noticed that they don't keep fresh pastries in a glass case, but on glass shelves - with no doors or windows to protect them. Nevertheless, they looked delicious so it seemed worth the risk.

We looked around for wax paper bags like you would find in front of the Krispy Kreme case in the USA. Watching others for an example of how the process of purchasing pastries worked, we found they used pizza pans and salad tongs.

Laughing, we went through the aisles packed with a variety of fresh, fragrant baked goods. Selecting each one with our salad tongs, we put each pastry on our pizza pan, we chose a couple piedras (rocks - raisin and pecan), a cuernos de azucar (a sugar-topped croissant) and my personal favorite, the polvorones (cinnamon shortbread coated in sugar). When our pizza pan was filled, we went to the bakery checkout.

In the USA, our custom is to use checkout lanes that are rectangular, where you put your goods on the counter as you pass through a lane. Purchasers stand on one side of the counter, while the cashier stands on the other side. In Mexico, at least at this Gigante, the counter was round! It was like an island. People moved through the circular line that wrapped around the counter with the cashier at the center.

Approaching the counter, we set the pizza tray down and placed our tongs on a rack attached to the side of the counter. Once you slide your tray to the cashier, he dumped your pastries into a paper bag and placed the pizza pan in a nook at the side of the counter. Now, both the pizza pan and salad tongs were ready for the next customer to use! In the USA, the stores would be shut down by OSHA in a heartbeat for not having food under glass and for not washing the pizza pan and salad tongs between each use, but this is Mexico.

I'm not saying that the Mexican way is bad, but I think I prefer the extra protection that goes into pastry sales here in the USA. I really don't know how much of a difference food in display cases make, but somehow it is reassuring that we have our food display and preparation under OSHA protection.

In the end the risk was worth it. The pastries were delicious, despite the amount of germs they might have collected in the sales process! It was difficult not to think about in the eating process, but we both pleasantly survived the pastry experience.